Poll Body Fact Checks Mallikarjun Kharge's Post On Voter List Revision
The Election Commission of India (ECI) has fact checked Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge's post on the special intensive revision (SIR) exercise, or voter list revision, being carried out in Bihar ahead of the assembly election due later this year.
Mr Kharge in a post on X had claimed the ECI amended the process of voter verification from asking for documents to only filling a form without any documents, following what he called "pressure from the Opposition, public and civil society".
In response, the ECI today said Mr Kharge's post was "misleading".
"The claim made in this post, that no document is required and only filling the form is sufficient, is misleading," the ECI said in a post on X.
"There is no change in the instructions. SIR is being conducted as per the orders dated 24.06.2025. While submitting the filled enumeration form before 25th July 2025 is mandatory, the documents can be submitted at any time either before 25th July 2025 or during the claims and objections period," it said, and shared a link to the order it referred to in the post.
#ECIFactCheck
See details in image below 👇
Stay Tuned, Stay Informed.
Link to #SIR order dated 24th June 2025 : https://t.co/Lh6Zuue1U9 https://t.co/wfrTa9MPrF pic.twitter.com/rwBd3kl0fh
— Election Commission of India (@ECISVEEP) July 7, 2025
The SIR exercise has become a huge political issue, with the Opposition Congress and other parties alleging the BJP is trying to snatch voting rights from crores of people in Bihar.
The ECI has explained the need for the SIR across India as its constitutional mandate to protect the integrity of electoral rolls. It decided to begin with Bihar since it is the first state where the next assembly election will be held later this year.
In his allegations, the Congress chief questioned the ECI why it wants people who have been voting in election after election to show documents for voting again.
"Forcibly depriving the poor, weak, deprived, Dalit, oppressed, and backward people of their voting rights is a conspiracy of the BJP and RSS," Mr Kharge alleged, referring to the BJP's ideological mentor Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).
The ECI has said Aadhaar and ration cards are not among the documents that will be accepted in the SIR exercise.
Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) MP Manoj Jha in an interview to NDTV raised concerns that only 14.18 per cent of Bihar's 7.9 crore voters submitted enumeration forms till July 5 - despite 87 per cent form distribution - which could lead to widespread exclusion.
He pointed to the exclusion of Aadhaar and ration cards, widely held by Biharis, from the 11 accepted documents, arguing that this violated the Representation of the People Act.
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The Hindu
38 minutes ago
- The Hindu
The two bypolls fought by Congress leader Kamaraj in Tamil Nadu
Former Chief Minister K. Kamaraj (1903-75), 122nd whose birth anniversary was celebrated on July 15, 2025 was known for organisational skills as well as fortifying the Congress in Tamil Nadu. In his long career, he had shepherded the national party in the State so ably that the Congress won most of the electoral battles since 1946. Of course, in 1967 and 1971 Assembly polls, the limits of Kamaraj's leadership qualities and electoral judgement came to the fore. There were, however, two electoral contests - bye-elections to the Gudiyatham Assembly constituency in 1954 and to the Nagercoil (now called Kanniyakumari) Lok Sabha seat in 1969 - wherein he was a principal player and on both occasions, he achieved success with finesse. The two bye-elections had one common feature: both were held in regions outside his native district - Ramanathapuram, under which Virudhunagar [the place of his birth] fell between 1910 and 1985. Gudiyatham Assembly constituency The need for contesting in the Gudiyatham bye-election arose for Kamaraj as he had to become a member of the legislature following his appointment as Chief Minister in April 1954. Even though the legislature of Tamil Nadu was bi-cameral then, Kamaraj did not choose to become a member of the Upper House (Legislative Council) unlike his predecessor C. Rajagopalachari (Rajaji or CR) did in 1952. One of his successors C.N. Annadurai (CNA) used CR's path in 1967. Also, there was a controversy over the way Rajaji became a Member of the Legislative Council P. Ramamurti, the Marxist theoretician and then in the undivided Communist Party of India (CPI), had unsuccessfully challenged CR's nomination in the Madras High Court. Kamaraj, who hailed from Virudhunagar in the southern belt of the State, was a Member of Parliament at the time of becoming the Chief Minister. The vacancy in the Legislative Assembly had existed only for Gudiyatham, which was part of the erstwhile North Arcot district (now split into Vellore, Ranipet, Thirupathur and Tiruvannamalai districts). At that time, Gudiyatham was a double-member constituency with one seat reserved for Scheduled Castes (SC). While Kamaraj, in June 1954, made it clear to the party that he would like to enter the fray for the general seat, the Scheduled Castes' Federation (SCF), established by B.R. Ambedkar, had approached him with a request to let the Congress adopt its member for the reserved seat, according to a report of The Hindu on June 22, 1954. The report had even mentioned that [in the event of the request being accepted,] 'this will be the first time' for the Congress and the SCF to have an electoral understanding. However, this proposal did not fructify, possibly due to the tense ties between Ambedkar and the Congress at the all-India level. Eventually, the SCF was left to put up its own candidate in Gudiyatham. For the reserved seat, the Congress' nominee was T. Manavalan and the Federation's, M. Krishnaswami. Even though the Congress' candidate was the Chief Minister himself, the ruling party did not take chances. Two Central Ministers - Maragatham Chandrasekhar, who was Deputy Minister for Health, and T.T. Krishnamachari (TTK), Union Minister for Industry and Commerce - were drafted for the poll work, apart from C. Subramaniam, ranked no. 2 in the Kamaraj Cabinet and Finance Minister. The Chief Minister's principal rival was K. Kothandaraman of the CPI. Veteran journalist T.S. Chockalingam, in his biography of the former Chief Minister, mentions that members of the Congress all over the State had 'turned their attention' towards Gudiyatham and 'friends' from every district had begun their campaign for Kamaraj. There was 'one more miracle' - the Dravidar Kazhagam and the Muslim League declaring publicly their support for him and commencing their canvassing. Also Read | When BJP talks of Kamaraj rule… Kamaraj was not one who would get carried away by 'such widespread support.' He plunged himself in the campaign and carried out his work in villages. With a few weeks to go for the date of polling, he had covered 100 out of 160 villages in the constituency, The Hindu wrote on July 18, 1954. Responding to the criticism of the Communists that the Congress, despite being in power at the Centre and in States, had not resolved many problems of the country, Kamaraj, at a meeting in Cherlapalli, wondered how 'age-long difficulties' of people could be removed within seven years of the country gaining Independence. Krishnamachari told the voters that Kamaraj was the 'friend and follower' of Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru. Being a person conscious of the living standards of the poor, he would 'do his best' to raise them, TTK assured the voters. When the result was out on August 4, 1954, it was on expected lines. Kamaraj had defeated the CPI's candidate by a comfortable margin - about 38,000 votes. That was the only occasion when the former Chief Minister was a candidate in the northern region of the State. Nearly 15 years later, the political field in the State was not that benign either to Kamaraj or to the Congress. In early 1967, the national party was dislodged from power in the State nearly after a 20-year-long rule. Kamaraj himself lost in the Virudhunagar assembly constituency to a lightweight of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK). Spearheaded by CNA, the DMK, which had stitched a rainbow coalition comprising the Swatantara and the CPI (Marxist), had captured power in a stunning fashion. At the Centre, though the Congress was in power, there had been changes in the balance of power. The 'old guard' in the ruling party was experiencing the phase of decline and naturally, there had been reports of difference between the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, and some of her Cabinet colleagues, who were considered members of the 'old guard.' As the Congress' pre-eminent position in the country's politics had started waning, new political forces were emerging. Nagercoil Lok Sabha constituency The death of 'Marshal' A. Nesamony had necessitated the bye-election to the Nagercoil Lok Sabha constituency. Kamaraj, who was looking for an opportunity to regain people's confidence after the Virudhunagar defeat, announced his candidature on December 1, 1968, this newspaper reported the next day. There were six other contestants. But, the battle was between him and M. Mathias, who was backed by the DMK-led alliance that included the Swatantara and the Muslim League. Ordinarily, Nagercoil should not have been difficult terrain for the Congress, which had a strong base even then, as is now. Besides, even in 1967, when the national party was thrashed in most of the districts, five out of six assembly constituencies, which formed Nagercoil, went in favour of the Congress. But, it was the DMK, which had decided to make the contest more intense. Former Congress leader Pazha Nedumaran, in his 'Perunthalaivarin Nizhalil' [In the shadow of great leader (meaning Kamaraj)], stated that the bye-election had been turned into another 'Kurukshetra War,' the entire credit for which should go to the then Public Works Minister M. Karunanidhi and former Assembly Speaker Si. Pa. Aditanar, who later became a Minister in the DMK Cabinet headed by Karunanidhi. In the assessment of Mr Nedumaran, the DMK leaders had entertained the notion that if Kamaraj had tasted defeat [the possibility of which could not be ignored especially after Virudhunagar], he could be driven out of the politics of Tamil Nadu. With the election fever mounting, the atmosphere was 'getting surcharged' with a stream of lorries bringing supporters of rival parties from outside the district, The Hindu wrote on January 5, 1969, three days before the date of polling. 'In the last 10 days, the Police have arrested about 200 persons, most of them Congressmen in connection with election clashes,' the newspaper reported. The then Tamil Nadu Congress Committee (TNCC) chief, (CS), accused the DMK of bringing in 'hired hooligans' from the neighbouring Tiruneveli district. Karunanidhi, who had overseen the campaign of Mathias, challenged CS's allegations and put the blame on the Congress, which, he said, was 'indulging in violence.' As for the complaint regarding the involvement of senior DMK Ministers in the campaign, Karunanidhi reasoned his party was 'only following the example' set by the Congress. Kamaraj's response was his party had refrained from inviting Union Ministers to campaign in the constituency, even though they were 'ready to come.' The bye-election frenzy rose to the boiling point on the midnight of January 4 when a worker of the DMK, Kittu, was killed and two others suffered stab injuries. That day, the head of the State police (which was called Inspector General) R.M. Mahadevan reached Nagercoil to oversee the preparations. The Superintendent of Police S. Dayasankar chose to go on medical leave for a month. He was immediately replaced by K. Srikumara Menon, Deputy Commissioner, Traffic. Madurai. On the day of polling (January 8), the then Chief Election Commissioner, S.P. Sen Verma, himself visited as many as 35 polling stations of the constituency, according to this newspaper. Given the high-decibel campaign, the voter turnout exceeded 75%, a few percentage points higher than what Nagercoil recorded in 1967. There was no element of great surprise in the result. Kamaraj won the bye-election by a huge margin of 1,28,201 votes over Mathias, by polling 2,49,437 votes. Commenting on the former Chief Minister's electoral battles, A. Gopanna, who had also authored his biography, feels Kamaraj always attached greater emphasis on drawing support from the people directly than anything else. R. Kannan, a biographer of former Chief Ministers C.N. Annadurai and M.G. Ramachandran apart from writing 'The DMK Years', says Kamaraj, by contesting in Nagercoil, had 'wanted to stay relevant.' Kamaraj's participation in the two bye-elections had only shown how much importance he, as a political leader, had paid to securing legitimacy from the public.
Time of India
an hour ago
- Time of India
Patwari writes to Gadkari seeking repair, probe into NH-3 crumbling stretch
Bhopal: Congress state president Jitu Patwari on Tuesday wrote to Union road transport and highways minister seeking immediate repair of the Ganesh Ghat section of the busy Agra-Mumbai National Highway (NH-3). Tired of too many ads? go ad free now "I would like to draw your attention to the extremely worrying and dilapidated condition of the realignment portion of Ganesh Ghat located on Indore-Khalghat section of Agra-Mumbai National Highway (NH-3) in Madhya Pradesh," Patwari wrote in a letter. "The construction work of this section was completed in Nov 2024 at a cost of Rs 109 crore. Its length is 8.8 km and width is 10.3 meters and now it has been completely damaged after just 6 inches of rain. Hundreds of deep potholes have formed on it, many of which are so big that an entire car can fit into it," he wrote. Patwari said it was unfortunate that a reputed institution like the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) is contending that "potholes will definitely be there after the first rain". "This argument looks even more ridiculous when, after a deadly traffic jam in Indore some time back, NHAI had told in a court, why do people even leave their homes? This shows what their priority is regarding the safety and convenience of the people," Patwari argued. He further said bus and truck drivers travelling on this dilapidated section of Ganesh Ghat have reported that due to the potholes, the vehicles ahead have to suddenly apply brakes, which poses a serious risk of accidents. "At some places, even the patchwork material has completely disintegrated, which has further increased the risk of two-wheeler riders slipping. It is necessary to mention that there is one-way traffic of 25,000 to 30,000 vehicles on this new alignment every day, and due to these potholes, vehicles are taking an additional 30 to 45 minutes to cross this 8.8 km section," the Congress leader said. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now "The construction company has to maintain the road for five years, but the quality of the patchwork done under maintenance is also under question. This clearly appears to be a major case of corruption where crores of public money have been wasted on poor quality construction," he said. Patwari asked for an immediate high-level enquiry into the corruption in this stretch of National Highway and initiation of strict action against the culprits. He also asked the Union minister to ensure immediate and quality repairs so that serious accidents can be prevented and inconvenience to lakhs of commuters is eliminated. Bhopal: Congress state president Jitu Patwari on Tuesday wrote to Union road transport and highways minister Nitin Gadkari seeking immediate repair of the Ganesh Ghat section of the busy Agra-Mumbai National Highway (NH-3). "I would like to draw your attention to the extremely worrying and dilapidated condition of the realignment portion of Ganesh Ghat located on Indore-Khalghat section of Agra-Mumbai National Highway (NH-3) in Madhya Pradesh," Patwari wrote in a letter. "The construction work of this section was completed in Nov 2024 at a cost of Rs 109 crore. Its length is 8.8 km and width is 10.3 meters and now it has been completely damaged after just 6 inches of rain. Hundreds of deep potholes have formed on it, many of which are so big that an entire car can fit into it," he wrote. Patwari said it was unfortunate that a reputed institution like the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) is contending that "potholes will definitely be there after the first rain". "This argument looks even more ridiculous when, after a deadly traffic jam in Indore some time back, NHAI had told in a court, why do people even leave their homes? This shows what their priority is regarding the safety and convenience of the people," Patwari argued. He further said bus and truck drivers travelling on this dilapidated section of Ganesh Ghat have reported that due to the potholes, the vehicles ahead have to suddenly apply brakes, which poses a serious risk of accidents. "At some places, even the patchwork material has completely disintegrated, which has further increased the risk of two-wheeler riders slipping. It is necessary to mention that there is one-way traffic of 25,000 to 30,000 vehicles on this new alignment every day, and due to these potholes, vehicles are taking an additional 30 to 45 minutes to cross this 8.8 km section," the Congress leader said. "The construction company has to maintain the road for five years, but the quality of the patchwork done under maintenance is also under question. This clearly appears to be a major case of corruption where crores of public money have been wasted on poor quality construction," he said. Patwari asked for an immediate high-level enquiry into the corruption in this stretch of National Highway and initiation of strict action against the culprits. He also asked the Union minister to ensure immediate and quality repairs so that serious accidents can be prevented and inconvenience to lakhs of commuters is eliminated.
Time of India
an hour ago
- Time of India
Bihari guest workers in TN left clueless on electoral rollrevision
Amid the furore surrounding the 's special intensive revision (SIR) of the electoral rolls in Bihar, ahead of the assembly election scheduled to take place later this year, the fates of lakhs of guest workers keen on exercising their voting right hangs in the balance. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now Under the exercise, around four crore of the eight crore voters in Bihar will have to submit documents proving their citizenship to enumerators by July 25, failing which their names will be excluded from the rolls. Analysts have pointed out that a huge chunk of the electorate comprising illiterate and underserved voters might not have one of the 11 documents that the Commission demands (including domicile and caste certificates) as proof of citizenship, and might not be in a position to furnish them before the deadline. The development has shocked 4.5 lakh people from Bihar in , of which an estimated 2 lakh are in Chennai. They include workers in the construction, hospitality, and logistics industries as well as college students. While the Supreme Court had suggested last week that the EC accept Aadhaar, its own identity card, and ration card as documents for voter re-verification, there seems to be an air of uncertainty regarding the way forward. "Since the announcement, we have been flooded with calls," says Mukesh Kumar Thakur, Secretary of Bihar Association, Chennai, and also Secretary of the Bihar Foundation, Chennai Chapter. "Some people have voter ID cards from Bihar, while their Aadhaar and ration cards have a Chennai address. They're worried that their names might get struck off owing to duplication. We have instructed them to approach their ward members. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now " Many workers are relying on relatives from their native constituencies to send them the necessary forms. Sanjay Kumar Jha, a logistics worker from Ambattur, who has lived in Chennai for 25 years with his family, plans on travelling to Bihar to get his verification done, as his Aadhaar bears a Chennai address, while the voter ID is of Bihar. In a majority of cases, workers have not been intimated about how to proceed with the revision process. Rajdev Kumar, a hotel employee in the city, fears the absence of awareness among guest workers could lead to mass exclusion from the electoral rolls. A similar fear has enveloped guest workers in other parts of TN. "Only a few among the daily wage workers from Bihar are educated, and they might be in a position to provide school or birth certificates. I have been working in Tamil Nadu for 15 years and all I have as proof are my Aadhaar and PAN cards," explained Rajesh Sah, employed at a private factory near Thaneerpandal road, Coimbatore. Others lament that the deadline for furnishing the necessary details is too short. With inputs from Anushka Juliet, Deepak Karthick, Vivanesh Parthiban
